The True Master of Death
by Irhaboggles
Summary: When the myth of the Deathly Hallows reaches the ears of Elphaba and Glinda, Glinda believes it instantly while Elphaba is skeptical, but after she discovers one of the Hallows, her belief starts to change. Now it seems like fate is guiding her to find the other two so that she might wield their power, defeat the Wizard of Oz and become the True Master of Death.
1. The Stuff of Legends

"Elphie? What's wrong?" Glinda was on the alert the moment her green-skinned friend touched down in their shared castle of the west, which they had been residing in together for about a year now. The cause for Glinda's alarm was because, as Elphaba flew in through the window that led to their "living room", she was clutching her chest tightly.

"Were you hurt?" Glinda demanded again as Elphaba carefully landed in the window sill and hopped off her broom and inside the castle.

"No, no, nothing like that," Elphaba promised with a gentle and reassuring smile. "My cloak just tore during one of my missions today and I was trying to keep the lining from falling out as I flew on back!" she showed off the torn cloak to reassure Glinda that she was fine. Just like she promised, Elphaba herself was totally unharmed, but her thick black cloak had a mouth-shaped hole torn down the side. Spilling out from that mouth was a thin, silvery lining.

"Well! I can fix it if you like!" Glinda said as she inspected the cloak. It really wouldn't be that hard to sew up at all!

"Thanks!" Elphaba gratefully took her up on the offer and while she sat down to rest, Glinda took the cloak over to a nearby sewing machine.

Sometime during their little moment of relaxation, however, something caught Elphaba's eye...

"Glinda! Your arm!" the green girl hopped up from the couch she had been reclining on and pointed in horror at Glinda's arm. Or lack thereof.

"What?" Glinda looked first at Elphaba, then down at her arm. Then she gave her own shout of surprise.

"Sweet Oz! Where is my arm?!" perhaps it was a comical-sounding phrase to speak, but for some reason, the first half of Glinda's right arm was entirely missing. She hopped up like a singed cat and, in doing so, felt something silky sliding across her arm. Suddenly, then, her arm was back. It only took her five seconds to realize what had happened.

"Sweet Oz!" she repeated, but this time, her voice was full of awe instead of shock...

"Yup. It's an invisibility cloak," Glinda confirmed a moment later as she wrapped the thin, silvery lining from Elphaba's cloak around her shoulders. A few seconds later, her body was gone and only a head remained.

"Wicked!" Elphaba breathed in reply.

"I've never seen one so powerful before!" Glinda agreed as she handed the cloak to Elphaba, who wasted no time in testing it out herself.

"What do you mean?" Elphaba replied as she vanished from Glinda's sight.

"I mean, most invisibility cloaks don't conceal you perfectly," Glinda replied. "All the ones I've seen before have had... imperfection," she paused for a moment, trying to think of a good way to explain this to Elphaba.

"For example," she said, "I've seen invisibility cloaks before that sometimes still leave a vague outline. Like, you are hidden, but the cloak is visible, if that makes sense. And other times the cloaks don't conceal shadows. Or sometimes, the fabric would just get old and the magic would wear off. I've never seen a cloak that worked so well before!" she shook her head in amazement as Elphaba came back into view.

A week later, Elphaba and Glinda were still just as floored by their lucky find as they were when they first discovered it.

"I've put it through an array of tests and it hasn't failed a single one!" Glinda decreed as she handed the invisibility cloak back to Elphaba. "I've tried using magical and nonmagical means in order to get it to fail, but it hasn't! Not even once, not even a little!"

"It's the stuff of legends, isn't it?" Elphaba replied as she took the cloak back, drawing it around her body once again.

"Yes it is!" Glinda agreed heartily, thinking back on how, just a couple hours ago, she'd tried to set the thing on fire with her wand. It didn't work. The fire just extinguished itself the second it touched the cloak. And no dagger or knife would cut the fabric, Glinda had tried that too.

"Yes, it really is the stuff of legends," Glinda repeated with a smile, but then her eyes shot wide open. "Wait just a clock tick!"

15 minutes later, Elphaba and Glinda were standing in Kiamo Ko's master library. Glinda was holding a little old book titled "The Deathly Hallows". Elphaba eyed the book with suspicion. Though she had never read the story herself, she had heard of it in her childhood. From what her father, and several of their neighbors, had said, it was little more than a fairytale. Or it was some sort of demonic tale of suggestion that would be best used as tinder. But either way, whether or not the neighbors considered the book a harmless bedtime story or a demonic influence, everyone was in unanimous agreement that it was all entirely fictitious. It was only a kiddie book! A fable! A bedtime story! The stuff of legends!

But Glinda was arguing otherwise, and quite passionately too.

"It is not just a story!" she cried as she opened the book up and shoved it at Elphaba. "The Deathly Hallows used to be real! Back in the time of the first Ozma! She used them to help harness her magic and create Oz as we know it! And it's not just a creation myth either!" she cried.

"But even if they _used _to exist it doesn't mean they'll still be around all these eons later!" Elphaba argued as she shoved the book back at Glinda.

"Are you really so sure about that?" Glinda replied, gesturing to their invisibility cloak, which they had brought along with them to the library. At first, Elphaba wanted to scoff. She wanted to laugh at the very idea of _their _cloak being the one of the legends, but Glinda looked so serious in her belief that, for once, Elphaba's own was shaken.

A month later, Glinda had won the argument. She managed to find proof that the Deathly Hallows were real.

"They were never fake at all!" she cried as she pulled up another ancient text from the heart of Kiamo Ko. It was a journal from a previous inhabitant of the castle, talking about how he had once possessed the Elder Wand before losing it in a humiliating and nearly-fatal battle.

"The Wizard only ever said that they were fake to squelch out the chance of anyone else trying to find them!" Glinda continued as she shoved the journal into Elphaba's face, and these words struck a chord with Elphaba such that she began to realize that Glinda was right. What a very "Wizard" thing to do: claim that a historical text was actually only fiction in order to eliminate competitors. It was just his style!

"I can't believe we've been duped by that old toad again!" Elphaba cursed angrily as she flipped violently through the little old journal.

"That doesn't matter now," Glinda interrupted Elphaba sharply. "All that matters is that we need to find those Hallows before he does!" and from that day forward, the race was on!

**AN: This was another Wicked Harry Potter crossover I had in the works, but I am not going to post it with the rest of the anthology since it's long enough to be its own story. Shout out once again to Elphiegranger2508, you're awesome! **


	2. The Soul of the Clock of the Time Dragon

But perhaps "race" wasn't the best term to use to describe what Elphaba and Glinda were doing. It was far slower and quieter. Although the vitality and urgency of a race was still there, there was definitely nothing that grandiose or swift. Instead, it was little more than years and years of research and clue-hunting. Elphaba and Glinda would take turns supporting the Ozian resistance against the "Wonderful" Wizard and then, on their off days, they would scour every corner of Oz with every resource they had in order to find more clues regarding the Deathly Hallows. They were able to find some books in the Wizard's private library (taken during a spy-mission that had them both go undercover into the Wizard's palace itself) and there were various stories scattered across all the countries of Oz, but none of them were clues so much as they were folktales.

In Quadling Country, there were tales of a magical stone of glass, able to bring back beautiful phantasms from the grave in a shimmering rainbow of light. In Gillikin Country, there were tales of a powerful wand able to cast any type of magic with ease, rumored to have belonged to some of the greatest kings and soldiers in all of Oz. Legends said that the reason the northern lands of Oz were so prosperous was because of that wand, passed down from generation to generation, each wielder using the wand's mighty power to bring honor and glory to the shining Gillikin hills. In the Vinkus, aside from the story of the hidden journal, there were stories of a mystic and mighty cloth, woven and spun from materials the likes of which no one in Oz had ever seen before. The rumors said that this magical cloth was like a cape and a shield all at once, perfect for camouflage while hunting and warring on the barren plains of the west. And Munchkinland shared the legend of the wand, claiming of a tool so mighty and powerful that harvests were always bountiful when it was around, and that the reaping was always plentiful when it came time to bring in the year's work of corn, wheat and other agricultural products.

In short, as Elphaba and Glinda continued to explore all of Oz, every place they stopped seemed to have yet another myth or history to tell about one of the Deathly Hallows and how it had helped shape their lives and lands for the better. It took quite a few years but, at long, long last, the two witches managed to find the second Hallow. This one was the Elder Wand, and they discovered it in the heart of the Emerald City.

"It's been quite a while since we've been here, huh?" Elphaba remarked dryly as she and Glinda slipped through the green streets of the city.

"If only we could've come on happier business," Glinda agreed as she stared longingly up at a nearby dress store.

But both of them knew full well that to reveal themselves to the public would be suicide. Because of that, they continued to creep along the alleyways, moving as swiftly, silently and stealthily as they could. They were on another mission for the Ozian Resistance, and this one involved setting up various little camps around and in the city before everyone came together in a giant riot. Elphaba and Glinda had been placed in one of the rendezvous points closer to the heart of the city. They knew that their commander would be in the next site over. Other resistance members would be scattered all around the streets o the city, each of them waiting for the signal in which they would attack.

After about 45 minutes of waiting, the riot began. The first camp, towards the eastern side of the city, started to lash out, all of the members suddenly upsetting various street vendors and vandalizing and smashing nearby stores. In a chain reaction, the other resistance bases did likewise, each of them suddenly coming to life in their own turn and causing madness and mayhem wherever they were. Elphaba, Glinda and their associates wasted no time in hurling stones and rotten food at western side of the Emerald City Palace.

"Here! Have at ya!" one of the resistance members bellowed as he threw an entire fruit stand at the palace walls. "How do you like them apples?!"

"Have a taste of your own medicine! Your Ozness!" someone else screamed as they began throwing Emerald City souvenirs at the palace.

"Serves him right!" Elphaba agreed, attacking the walls with magic in attempt to tear them down or blow them up. Glinda was helping her with this. All around them, battles were erupting everywhere. People were getting into fist fights and because of all the chaos, quite a few individuals were attempting to pillage and plunder from all the broken stores.

At last, the Wizard's guard retaliated and the riot quickly became an official battle. The resistance members moved in from all sides, surrounding the Gale Force against their own palace. Then it really got bloody. Magic, guns, and other random projectiles shot across the air back and forth between the two sides of the conflict. Elphaba and Glinda were on the frontlines. It was some time during this conflict that the sacred Clock of the Time Dragon suddenly came rolling in out of nowhere. It really did not serve much of a purpose in the battle other than to spook and incite the riot even more. Everyone in Oz, resistance member and loyal Ozian alike, feared and revered the Clock, seeing it as some sort of god or ethereal, otherworldly being. To see it suddenly shooting across the battlefield was a huge fright to everyone in attendance.

"Keep on!" someone shouted when the battle faltered at the sight of the Clock wheeling its away across the carnage. The battle did continue, but it had become even more stressful now that Oz's most sacred symbol was in the fray as well. It only sat there, totally still and silent, but its mere presence alone filled the combatants with a new and indescribable energy. No one would ever know which side had found the Clock first and rolled it out to use as a scare tactic, but they would know that it definitely worked, and it worked both ways.

About halfway through the battle, however, Elphaba found herself facedown in front of the Clock, having been blasted over there by a stray bomb. She heard Glinda scream her name, but her ears were ringing so loudly that all she could do was stare blankly up at the godly and miraculous clockwork machine towering over her. It was totally unscathed despite the chaos surrounding it. But as she continued to stare hollowly up at the creature, the dragon's eyes suddenly flickered. With an imperceptible move of the head, it met her eyes and its curtains slowly opened...

This time, the show was all only done in shadow puppets, in order to keep anyone that wasn't Elphaba from seeing it clearly. She watched, hypnotized, as the Time Dragon played its story for her, the history of the Deathly Hallows unfolding in front of her as black specters on a white canvas. So! Glinda had been right after all! Elphaba did not doubt her, but to see the sacred Clock itself confirming the legend was something else.

Elphaba could only stare as she watched the shadows dance across the stage, the Hallows taking shape before being scattered across the land. Just as Glinda had guessed, the Wizard was hunting them and had, somehow, gotten his greedy hands onto the Invisibility Cloak. He stole it from the western lands during an earlier invasion thereof, taking it from one of the Animals that was in charge of part of the Vinkus plains. To hide the fact that he had it, he had woven it into his own regular cloak and stashed it safely away into his attic. At least until Elphaba and Glinda accidently got trapped up there and unwittingly stole it while trying to look for a way to escape or hide.

After watching her own escape unfold, Elphaba continued to stare, transfixed, as the Time Dragon continued to illustrate the story of the Deathly Hallows. She had seen the path of the Invisibility Cloak, and now it was showing her the path of the Elder Wand, taking her all the way back to the days of the first Ozma. It had, indeed, started off in the northern lands but, following a duel, it found itself in the west. Just like the man in the journal had detailed. But then it was taken back all the way to the east in that humiliating but non-fatal duel that the journal had described. But even the eastern lands had lost the wand and the shadows became blurry, flickering again between the north and the Emerald City itself. Then the shadows all coalesced into one giant blob. For a moment, it remained that way until the shadow took the vague outline of... The Clock itself.

"What?" Elphaba breathed as the curtains closed again. She looked back up at the giant, metal dragon sneering down at her from the roof of the Clock. Its grin seemed to grow even wider as it slowly, carefully, imperceptibly lowered its head down to her. Then its jaws opened just the slightest. Something slid halfway out of its mouth. The tongue. Elphaba instinctively reached up to grab it and was surprised to feel something hard, thin, small and cylindrical inside the Time Dragon's soft tongue. Without hesitation, she gasped and pulled the tongue clean out of the Dragon's mouth. As soon as she had her prize, it snapped its jaws shut again and returned its head to its original resting place. Then, its eyes flickered dark one last time. The Clock would never open again.

But Elphaba was too distracted by the Dragon's tongue to realize that, in effect, it had just given her its very life and soul to her. She realized that the tongue was actually just a sheath and there, inside of it, was a wand. This was the Soul of the Clock of Time Dragon. All of its other magics and gears were irrelevant. This wand was its true heart, its true source of power and life. This wand, which must've been in the Clock for eons given that the Clock itself was not exactly a new invention, was what had kept it alive and kicking ever since its genesis way back in the line of the earliest Ozmas. This was what had given the Clock its mystic, prophetic, graphic and horrific powers. It was the Clock's very essence and life blood. It was the Clock's true heart, pumping its magic like blood and oil through the cogs and gears of the machine.

Now, though, that heart had stopped pumping. The blood was dried up from its wiry veins. With the wand gone, now in Elphaba's possession, the Clock was no more, its very soul exiting the cold metal shell of the dragon. Now, it truly was only a machine. The Clock would never tick again. Elphaba had its power source now, and because it had been willingly given, the wand recognized Elphaba as a stronger and superior begin to the Clock. It claimed Elphaba immediately, glowing softly and warming her hands as she continued to marvel at it. While the Clock took its last shuddering breath, shutting down entirely, the wand was reinfused with a new life force, Elphaba's. She now held, in her hands and under her control, the very soul of the Clock of Time Dragon.

"Sweet Oz!"

**AN: Hope you all liked the twist about what made the Clock tick. I know it makes the timeline a bit weird, but it's my idea that the Clock originally was only JUST a clock, but after the Wand somehow wound up inside of its machinery, it became the weird little thing we see in the book and musical. Before you go onto the next chapter, tell me what you think about Elphaba potentially being the Master of Death. **


	3. A Victim of Death

Following Elphaba's mastery over the Elder Wand, the rest of the Emerald City riot passed in a blur for her. It was suddenly all immaterial now that she had the Elder Wand in her possession. She immediately raced off to find Glinda, leaving the cold empty corpse of the Clock to continue to stare unseeingly down at the war ranging on below it. Once Elphaba found Glinda, she quickly dragged the blond away from the fight.

"What are you doing?" she snapped as Elphaba dragged her into an empty and hidden alleyway.

"We've gotta get out of here!" Elphaba replied. "Before the Gale Force sees us!"

"Since when were you ever afraid of them?" Glinda shot back, the adrenaline from battle making her extra aggressive. Elphaba responded only by silently holding up the Elder Wand with wide eyes. Glinda took one look at it and all of her adrenaline seemed to vanish completely.

"Oh, Shiz!" she gasped, then _she _became the one to start dragging Elphaba off of the battlefield at top speed.

A few hours later, they were safe and sound back home in Kiamo Ko, but neither of them took any chance to relax, too elated, ecstatic and excited with their new victory to do anything other than gawk and tremble in awe and fear.

"Holy sweet Lurline, I can't believe you found it!" Glinda looked close to fainting as Elphaba held the Wand reverently.

"I can't either," she replied, having just finished explaining how she'd gotten it.

"I can't believe that it was right under all of our noses for so very long! I can't believe it's been out of Ozian hands for so long!" Glinda continued, still reeling over the revelation that the wand had the true source of the Clock's power. How many centuries had been lost with Ozians speculating about the origin of the Clock only for it now to be revealed so quickly and easily, and by the Clock itself no less.

"Well, it makes sense, the Clock was pretty self-aware," Elphaba said. "And according to the story, so is the Elder Wand itself. The Clock was nothing more than a vessel for it, it acting as its own master until someone better came along..." but Elphaba was still reeling from the fact that the Wand somehow considered her to be a worthy owner.

"Did the Clock give you any final prediction?" Glinda asked, shaking her head. "Maybe it was trying to say that _you _will be the hero to defeat the Wizard and free Oz? You already have the Cloak, so maybe the Clock was trying to tell you that it's _your_ destiny to become the Master of Death?"

"Maybe," Elphaba replied, subdued. It seemed like a crazy theory, but nothing else made sense at the moment. It both scared and excited her to think that she was supposed to become the Master of Death, but as she thought about it, it sort of made sense.

Everyone who knew her knew that she was a bit of an oddball, and not just because of her weird skin or weird personality, but because of the fact that she had always been sort of an outcast, trapped between two worlds. She was as mysterious and free as the Clock itself. Unable to be pinned or labeled. She was well acquainted with Death, and with magic. Even from birth, she'd held a tremendous amount of power within herself, and she had been the only person in all of Oz to be able to read the Grimmerie easily. Maybe the Clock was onto something...

But as the years continued to pass, Elphaba and Glinda never made quite such a dramatic or wonderful victory ever again. Instead, after a time, a mysterious young girl from somewhere over the rainbow came dropping into Oz and she was quickly recruited by the Wizard himself to take out Elphaba and Glinda. He and the other Ozians saw her as a sort of goddess because of her miraculous arrival into the country. The Wizard wasted no time in using that, combined with her naive nature, to his advantage, making her another pawn in his evil chess game. She fell for it and quickly became his faithful, albeit unwitting, assassin. She succeeded in her goal and killed Elphaba. Glinda, however, managed to escape.

"You must take all of this and go!" Elphaba had commanded of her as the mysterious little girl approached her castle. She shoved the two Hallows and the Grimmerie at Glinda. "I am really the one that they want and you must survive so that you can protect our legacy!" Glinda hadn't wanted to leave, but she understood the logic in Elphaba's plan and, with one final kiss farewell, she fled the castle right as the little girl arrived. The two never saw each other again.

In the years to follow, Glinda literally went underground. She used her magic to carve out a decent living space right in the earth of Oz itself and remained hidden there for a couple years more, unable to find it within herself to ever go back to Kiamo Ko, now that it had become Elphaba's grave. But even though the Wizard seemed to have won the final battle, life threw Oz a curveball and a strange twist of events gave Glinda one last chance to avenge her friend and ensure the Wizard's defeat, for good.

Through the years, Glinda had managed to slowly, but surely, make her way back up to the northern territory of Oz while she was living underground and on the run. She had no intention of going home, knowing that she really had no place left to go back to, but it was still nice to be back in the land where she'd grown up. But she wasn't just going for the nostalgia. She also had a certain location in mind. She skirted all the big cities and towns until she was very far up north, beyond the reaches of civilization. It was there that she found herself standing in the fabled Ozmist Forest, a large swath of untamed and natural beauty alleged to contain the souls of Ozians who not ready to pass on from this plane of existence. It was Glinda's hope that she would be able to find Elphaba's soul here, and reunite with the green girl once again.

Sadly, Glinda's hopes were dashed. Elphaba was not amongst the Ozmists. It was a devastating blow to Glinda, who had spent years walking up north from the farthest reaches of the west, all only to realize that her end goal had been doomed from the start. It seemed that Elphaba was not supposed to be the Master of Death after all, but rather, she was only a Victim of Death instead, as so many other Ozians were. But Glinda's trek had not been totally in vain. Instead, a few of the kinder Ozmists led Glinda even deeper into their woodland home. There, resting in a tiny, unmarked grave, hidden by a lot of foliage, was the Resurrection Stone. Like a pearl in an oyster, that shiny little Resurrection Stone sat in the dirty, dark pit of the unmarked grave and Glinda wasted no time in plucking it right up for herself.

"Maybe this can bring Elphaba back!" she murmured in wonder as she held the third and final Deathly Hallow in her hand. No words would ever be able to describe the torrent of pain, joy, grief and triumph she felt, holding that precious, precious stone. She had done it. Somehow, and against all odds, she had done it. After decades of determination and suffering, Glinda had found the third and final Hollow...

"Or maybe, you can put it to some actual use and give it here!" a voice from behind Glinda suddenly gloated. She whipped around to see the Wizard himself, standing there with a wicked smile on his wrinkly old face.

"What? But how?" Glinda paled in terror, backing up as he approached her tauntingly.

"My dear, you really should've covered your tracks better," the Wizard replied smugly. "After we got rid of your stupid little girlfriend, my soldiers did a complete and utter raid upon the entirety of Kiamo Ko. You really should've been smarter than to leave all of your well-written, well-thought-out notes regarding the Deathly Hallows just lying out in the open for any old sap to read," the Wizard pretended to be disappointed in Glinda and Glinda felt herself growing even paler still. Uh oh. It hadn't even occurred to her to get rid of those notes before fleeing!

"But that still doesn't explain how-" Glinda began.

"How I found you?" the Wizard interrupted. "My dear! You really do take me for a fool! Don't you?" he paused and Glinda considered agreeing, but she decided against it and remained silent, allowing the Wizard to continue on in his story.

"You see, when Dorothy reported back to us, she reported to having only seen one witch. The green one. It didn't take a genius or a seer to imagine that you must've escaped! So I sent all of my best trackers after you. And now, I didn't want to cause a stink, especially after realizing that you already had two of the three Deathly Hallows, so I let you live. I decided that you could be of some use to me, and now you have!" the Wizard smiled benevolently at Glinda before gesturing to the stone in Glinda's hands.

"Letting you live was the best decision I ever made!" the Wizard cried. "Because you, Glinda, my dear, have led me right to the last Hallow! But now, I regret to inform you that your services are no longer required. Therefore, I insist that you surrender the Stone and come quietly, or risk an ending that would put your girlfriend's to shame..."

Then the Wizard dropped another whammy on Glinda, pulling out the Invisibility Cloak and the Elder Wand. Glinda felt her heart stop in her chest. Although she'd kept the Deathly Hallows relatively close to her person for all these years, she had left them back at her little underground camp before entering the Ozmist Forest, thinking that it would be safer to leave them buried underground than to bring them into the Forest with her. How wrong she had just proved herself. The Wizard laughed coldly again before drawing the Cloak around himself and pointing the Wand right at Glinda's exposed and unarmed figure.

What ensued was a wild chase through the Ozmist forest. The moment Glinda saw the Elder Wand being pointed at her, she panicked. Without hesitation, she went sprinting through the forest, using the Resurrection Stone to summon up spirit after spirit to distract the Wizard. They were unable to do any harm, but their mere pearlescent presence was more than enough to at least give Glinda more time to escape. They surprised him every time they popped up and a few of the more interested ones helped Glinda by trying to swarm the Wizard and blind him.

But in the end, time ran out for Glinda and the Wizard finally caught up to her. With one swipe of his wand, Glinda collapsed to the forest floor, dead before she even hit the ground. It seemed that she was not to be the Master of Death either but, instead, was only another Victim of Death. But the Wizard was cruel, and he wasted no time in bringing Glinda's spirit back at once he had the Resurrection Stone in his hand. He did it all only to rub it in her face and he brought Elphaba back too, for the same sick purposes.

"How does it feel?" he sneered in their ghostly faces. "Knowing that you lost and that now I control all three of the Deathly Hallows myself? After all you've done and after all you've been through, you still lost!" the old man cackled, completely lost in his own madness. He waved the Stone and Wand around like a child, laughing manically as he danced around in the Cloak. Glinda and Elphaba could only watch in helpless fury. It was a bittersweet meeting for the two of them and not at all how they imagined their first union going.

"I'm so sorry," Glinda whispered brokenly to Elphaba.

"It's not your fault," she tried to console the poor ghost. "You did your best. This is all the Wizard's doing!" she shot him a hateful glare.

"You're darn right it is!" he agreed, bowing proudly to her and all the other defeated ghosts watching him enviously and nervously. They all wanted nothing more than to rip him to shred, but literally couldn't do anything now. But maybe someone else could...

**AN: So how do you all feel, now that Elphaba and Glinda have both been knocked out of the running for being the True Master of Death? How will they defeat the Wizard now? Who do you think will be their savior? Give it some thought before you keep reading.**


	4. The True Master of Death

Once the Wizard was done gloating, he raised up his arms, preparing to harness all the powers of life and death. He readied himself to become the strongest being in existence, a true God, the true Master of Death, and of all of Oz and reality itself. He would wield life, death and all the powers and secrets of the universe and reality itself. And all with just a flick of the wrist! But right as he readied himself to take that glorious throne, his spell went awry. He overloaded on power and it exploded back out of him in an out of control spiral.

The sky had gone dark at first, ominous and cold as he started to chant, but then as the winds picked up and began to roar across the land, even the Wizard started losing control. His voice was lost under the howling gale and he began to shake as his spell slipped out of his control. He could no longer undo that which he had done. He was now only an innocent bystander, helpless as the Ozmists, and the Hallows took over once more, their combined power creating something that no Ozian alone could ever hope to contain. But maybe someone outside of their realm could...

As the winds got louder, harder and faster and as the sky got darker and darker, everyone in Oz trembled.

"Twister!" Glinda shrieked, pointing towards the southern side of the forest. Sure enough, looming on the horizon was a giant gray funnel cloud. The Wizard screeched in terror, throwing himself inside the nearby unmarked grave where the Resurrection Stone had been found. As the twister drew closer and closer, the Wizard drew the Invisibility Cloak protectively around himself. Meanwhile, Glinda and Elphaba and all the other Ozmists could only stare in awestruck horror and wonder as the giant swirling storm suddenly spat something out of its funnel-shaped belly. It was a child. _The _child. The Dorothy girl. Just like the first time, she came falling right out of the sky and towards their country.

"Oh. My. Oz."

The girl was spat out of the tornado at an alarming speed, but as she began to fall back down to the earth, her descent slowed down until she landed as delicately as though she'd merely stepped out off a flight of stairs. In the background, as Dorothy's fall began to slow, the tornado began to dissipate and the moment Dorothy's dainty little foot made contact with the ground, the tornado vanished and the sun returned to the sky. In that one split second, the winds stopped in a dead halt, the tornado completely vanished and the sky switched back to a bright endless blue, faster than the blink of an eye. All the other Ozians who'd been watching the phenomenon and fearing the worst, an apocalypse maybe, could only scratch their heads as the day went completely back to normal for seemingly no reason at all.

"Is it over yet?!" the Wizard whimpered, peeking an eye out from his Invisibility Cloak. The moment he made eye contact with Dorothy, however, he hopped right up out of his grave and cried out in surprise.

"Dorothy?!" he shouted in disbelief.

"Mr. Wizard!" Dorothy exclaimed, just as surprised and confused. She took a happy step closer to him, but when she drew too close, she saw all the lines and wrinkles of madness etched into his face. Her smile fell and her steps faltered.

"Mr. Wizard?" she repeated, but this time, she didn't sound so confident.

"What are you doing here?" he demanded of her. Nope. He was _definitely _not the same sweet old grandpa she had met a few years back.

"I could ask you the same thing," she replied warily, taking a guard step backward.

What ensued was an argument over what was going on and, by the argument's climax, the Wizard made the daring move of threatening to take Dorothy's life if she didn't either get out of his way, or explain how and why she had come back at all.

"There's only room enough for one grandmaster sorcerer in this country, little girl!" he shrilled manically, brandishing the Elder Wand like a sword as he took a threatening step towards Dorothy. But Dorothy refused to surrender. Frightened and hurt as she was by the Wizard's betrayal, she refused to be cowed by such a bully. Instead, she only crossed her arms and stomped her foot, demanding that he play nice and stop being so nasty.

"I didn't ask for this!" she spat. "This is all your fault, so quit trying to pin it on me! How about you just try and help me home instead of insisting that I'm encroaching upon your territory or whatever. You're the one who called me here in the first place!" she accused, pouting.

For a tiny little girl with no unique features or discernible powers of her own, she was quite brave. Or maybe she was just really spoiled and stupid. Either way, no one else in all of Oz had ever taken such a direct and daring stand against the Wizard, bravely calling him out on his evil.

"Sweet Oz!" Glinda murmured as she watched the child continue to chew the Wizard out. Even Elphaba was looking at her with a newfound respect as she boldly strove to call the Wizard out on all of his sins and secrets. The other Ozmists were just as studied by Dorothy's raw gumption. The Wizard, however, was not at all amused by her admonishment. Instead, it only outraged the Wizard to the point of murder. He showed no hesitation or mercy when he raised his Elder Wand to kill Dorothy, but even though he cast the spell correctly, it rebounded off of Dorothy and hit him instead. He was dead before he even hit the ground.

"What? I don't understand!" Dorothy exclaimed, falling to her knees and touching the Wizard's lifeless body.

"You must be the truth Master of Death," Glinda replied, subdued. She'd watched the entire ensuing argument in horror, terrified at the thought of the Wizard willingly murdering a little girl. Perhaps Glinda was still angry at Dorothy for killing Elphaba, but listening to Dorothy speak reminded Glinda that she had only been a pawn to the Wizard and had not meant to harm Elphaba out of a personal grudge. Because of that, when the Wizard had threatened to kill Dorothy, Glinda had protested the loudest. Rival or not, she was still only a child! But in the end, Glinda's protestations had not been needed. For one, they were entirely useless. For another, the Wizard's killing curse had rebounded, striking him instead of Dorothy.

"But how?" Dorothy repeated, still searching nervously for a pulse. She wasn't sure which idea would have made her happier: finding out that the Wizard was still alive, or finding out that he not only merely dead, but really most sincerely dead. At the same time, there was a tiny bit of exasperation in her face. Seriously! What was it with her and accidently killing magical Ozians? Was it karma? Or bad mojo? Or what?

"It was because you refused to bow," Elphaba finally spoke up as she figured it out first.

"What?" Dorothy echoed in confusion. Although it was clear she was still a bit wary of the green witch, she had been able to put it together that Elphaba was not the enemy, it was the Wizard. And Elphaba herself, though annoyed at having been killed by such a loser of a child, knew that there were bigger things going on at the moment than settling a petty little grudge. For that, she chose to temporarily ignore the fact that this little girl was her killer and, instead, focus on unraveling the mystery of the Deathly Hallows.

"It was because you refused to bow," Elphaba repeated. "Because you refused to surrender, even when the Wizard tried to kill you, you proved that you did not fear death. This act of bravery, strength and acceptance must've persuaded the Deathly Hallows to not harm you. After all, it's a rare day when someone can willingly look Death in the eye and only smile back," she paused to give a dry smile at this. Meanwhile, Glinda had since slapped a hand over her mouth in realization. It was just like the story had said!

"This makes perfect sense!" she cried and everyone else in the area, Ozmist and human alike, turned to her for her explanation.

"You see," she began, "In the legend, the three Hallows were each given to one of three brothers, but only one of them managed to live a full, long, happy life. It was the brother who received the Invisibility Cloak. This was because the first two brothers, with the Wand and Stone, abused their powers and tried to manipulate death, one way or the other. But the last brother merely used his gift to extend his own life, and when he felt ready to go, he had no qualms about it. He did not try to manipulate Death and, instead, willingly let things happen naturally. That's what made him the true Master of Death instead of another mere victim. Even though he never possessed the other two Hallows, his willingness to accept Death and not fear it was his most defining trait, and the most important one of a True Master!"

The little Ozmist turned to look Dorothy in the eyes.

"That is a trait Dorothy herself displayed while standing up to the Wizard!" she cried. "No matter how afraid you might've felt, Dorothy, you stood your ground. It had been the Wizard to cower at the first sign of danger, but you didn't even flinch. You, Dorothy, are the only one in all of Oz and its history to come in contact with all three Hallows, be unafraid, and survive. That display of strength was so great that even though you didn't technically beat the Wizard for control of the Hallows, they gave themselves up to you anyway!" she finished.

"Just like me and the Wand!" Elphaba breathed, thinking back years and years ago when the Clock had willingly surrendered the Wand to her, no fighting or murder required. Just a simple shift in power and ownership and a simple reacknowledgement of who was the worthiest. That was how the Hallows were truly passed around: a reassessment of worthiness. It was not about who was the physically strongest, but who was the spiritually strongest. And that was the true mark of a true Master of Death. It was not the one who could control Death the best, but who could understand and trust it the best. Who could transcend normal human thoughts about Death and start looking at it another way.

"That also explains why the Dragon never gave you a prophecy where you saved the day!" Glinda cried suddenly, turning to Elphaba.

"You're right!" the other Ozmist cried. Even though the Clock had given her the Wand, it never explicitly showed her becoming the True Master of Death. And why? Because Elphaba was never meant to be that person. All along, it had been Dorothy. But because her time had not come quite yet, the Clock had not shown the prophecy to Elphaba. Besides, since it had always been about Dorothy, it had not been any of Elphaba's business.

"This meant I was never meant to be the Master either," Glinda mused. "It was always going to be Dorothy... And the Clock knew it all along..."

"Impossible," Dorothy tried to deny, but deep in her heart, she knew it was true. All the other Ozmists began to nod their pearly heads, each of them coming to the same conclusion and understanding that Elphaba and Glinda were already at. They began to revere Dorothy as the new and true, official Master of Death.

"But what should I do now?" she asked, still looking up to Glinda for help.

"Maybe you could use the Hallows to go home?" Glinda suggested.

"You think it'll work?" Dorothy asked.

"I don't know," Glinda replied ruefully. "But what else can you do except try?" and Dorothy had to agree to that.

Dorothy turned her back on the Ozmists then and wrapped the Cloak around her own shoulders before holding up the Wand and the Stone, just like the Wizard had earlier. The only difference was that Dorothy was far gentler and more certain. The Wizard had been mad, and a little afraid and insecure. His power had spiraled quickly out of his control. But Dorothy had far more stability than that and while she raised the Hallows up, they continued to stay within her control. They would not try to break free of her. She had a much better grip on herself and would be able to take the combined power of the Hallows, unlike the Wizard. So Dorothy was careful to raise the Hallows up gently and certainly.

"Wait!" Elphaba reached out a misty hand before Dorothy could try anything. The girl obediently lowered the Hallows again.

"Yes?" she asked her ex-enemy politely.

"Promise us that once you get home, you'll destroy those things immediately!" the green witch and a small smile spread across Dorothy's face.

"I promise," she replied. "And I'm sorry that I melted you. I didn't realize-" she added, sincerely apologetic.

"It's all water under the bridge now," Elphaba replied casually, dark eyes flickering appreciatively over to the Wizard's corpse.

"Is that really the most appropriate metaphor you could've used at a time like this?" Glinda asked softly, playfully elbowing the witch.

"Oh hush," Elpahab replied, but she was laughing too. Dorothy watched with a smile etched upon her own face, sincerely glad to have obtained forgiveness fro the woman she had not meant to kill. It also made her feel good to see the witch looking so happy and human, not at all the haunted and broken specter she'd met in the castle those few years back.

But with all the final farewells and promises in order, Dorothy turned back around one last time and raised the Hallows high.

"There's no place like home!" she tried, and it worked. In a flash of brilliant rainbow light, Dorothy was gone.

"I can't believe that actually worked," Elphaba grunted once the blinding light died back down to normal.

"I can't believe she actually remembered that old phrase and used it," Glinda replied with a snort.

"So what do we do now?" one of the other Ozmists finally piped up.

"Well, we wait," Glinda replied, and then she and the other Ozmists continued to look skyward to where Dorothy had vanished, somewhere over the rainbow. During that time, Glinda felt Elphaba intertwine their fingers. Glinda smiled and squeezed Elphaba's hand right back.

Dorothy made good on her vow and as soon as she got home, landing right next to the family farm's pig sty, she destroyed the Hallows at once. She tossed all three of them into one of the larger pieces of farm machinery and watched as they were ground up to dust. Maybe they were unbreakable in the Ozian world, but in her world, they were nothing more than a stick, a rock, and a shoddy old piece of cloth. It took less than five seconds to totally erase them from the universe forever, and their remains quickly mixed with all the other raw material trapped inside that machine.

Back in Oz, then, Elphaba, Glinda and the other Ozmists suddenly started to feel themselves fading out of existence.

"Oh my Oz! She did it! She really did it!" Glinda gasped as she felt herself grow lighter and lighter. Beside her, Elphaba looked just as excited. Even though the two of them and all the other Ozmists were literally fading right out of reality itself, none of them were anything other than excited and ready. After all, to a well-prepared mind such as theirs, Death was nothing but the next great adventure.

"Are you ready?" Elphaba whispered as she felt herself starting to rise upward into the ether.

"Of course!" Glinda replied, reaching out to grab the green girl's misty hand one last time. Then all of them vanished together until the Ozmist Forest's silvery glow had gone, reducing it to nothing more than a common woodland area.

But even though the magic was gone, the legacies of the Ozmists remained. Soon, the Wizard's corpse was all at that was left that was out of place in the forest, but it would spend the rest of eternity lying face down in the mud, left to rot alone while someone else would step up to take his throne and start turning Oz into the country it should've been long before he ever arrived. Then, as the next morning sun rose over the Ozmist Forest, now an empty and normal piece of land, the very last wisp of ghostly fog vanished forever, just like a morning dew, and all was right with the world once again.

**AN: So what did you all think of the twist with Dorothy becoming the True Master? Do you approve or still think it should've been one of our two leading ladies? Also, again, forgive any lore that I am butchering in this fic. I needed some excuse to get Dorothy in power and this is how I did it. But either way, hope you all enjoyed the story! **


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